last question: What are PvE guilds like now? Is it still really competitive and will it be hard to find a laid back guild on a big server?

Our guild is quite laid back, you can hit me up online in like an hour or two when our raid starts and I'll get you an invite if you like. We are laid back... but I hate trolls.

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Originally Posted by syphil

Okay, forgive me, but I must ask. There's this weird perception about ilvl = more dps/hps/survivability. Where did this come from? To me, it seems lazy. Do raiding guilds no longer focus on reviewing logs of applicants?

(Background: officer in a top 50 (depending on tier) US raiding guild who doesn't give a flying fuck about an applicants ilvl. However, I did have to retire (newborn baby), so I just tend the bank nowadays.)

I most definitely would review logs and take that into consideration of an individual. But also, for a normal mode pug, wouldn't take someone who obviously hasnt' put the time/effort into their toon yet to even have any LFR gear yet. A random pug you don't really have time to put in an app and explain why you are approx 25 ilvls below the previous tiers normal mode items. I hate Ilvl as a requirement as well, but in another thread on this forum we have discussed why its a requirement these days. The main reason being that there is no way to tell a persons quality of playing in a short amount of time so you can only tell their level of experience with their toon based on # of kills and sheer quantity of gear. If you have a 498 ilvl from pvp gear, you can't tell me that person is ready to jump into normal SoO. Its neither fair to the rest of the group nor the player.

Timeless Isle for a while until you're decked out in mostly 535's then you're good for flex. Maybe I've been stupidly lucky but my Warrior's picked up 5 or 6 Burdens on top of the guaranteed one, does a good job bumping up that ilvl (providing the stats you get aren't terrible).

iLvl increases your overall base throughput, so even crap players can show improvement with iLvl increases. It is more of a valid measure, however, in regards to how far into LFR/flex one has progressed, and how much effort one has made in prep, because more gear beyond a certain point (496 or so) implies experience in places such as SoO lfr/flex, knowledge of purchasable/questable/legendary loot, etc.

So weird. We would get an applicant; pick through his or her logs; accept them based on that. He or she would go on trial status and get in on the farm run. Farm run == they soak up all the loot because everyone else doesn't need it (and the other players are begging to bring alts in just so they can steal some loot). Progression night comes; new guy gets benched until we can review his logs to make sure he isn't a hindrance.

Never once did we consider his "gear score" or "iLvl" stuff. Gear is easy. Performance is hard. I would place a large wager on one of our DPS in 496 gear easily out-performing a fully decked out LFR player (whatever iLvl that is).

You got any friends that are part of a raiding guild? You can probably tag along with a flex run if you read up on tactics beforehand. PUGs you pick up in trade chat often have irrational demands for your ilvl (and wouldn't be able to carry a player).
I would skip most of the timeless isle if I were you since 496 random stat gear probably isn't an upgrade over 496 pvp gear. You could replace 1 or 2 weak pieces of gear that you have though. Also there is a chest that is guaranteed to drop a Burden of Eternity, marked with a 7 in this guide: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...en-Chest-Guide!
Use this burden on a timeless isle token to turn it into a 535 armor piece, if you're lucky with the random stats this should last you until you get a drop in flex mode.

Also if you have time to watch some tactic videos or read a quick guide you're pretty much good to jump into LFR already. LFR is the PVE equivalent of random battlegrounds though, just so you know what kind of attitudes to expect.

As far as guild go, I would say join some people in their flex mode run (as flex allows for additional people to join) and if they like you and how you play you can ask about joining their guild. There's plenty of guilds out there that are pretty casually doing normal mode and/or flex.

Then add in the mandatory Meta/cloak that adds about 20% dps and requires 3 months.

Total bullshit, the island gear is supposed to fill gaps and get you into LFR/Flex runs, it's really just there to pander to the ilvl requirements that people impose these days, it's not supposed to be good just give you the number boost and if you're really dedicated to running everything you need to, the cloak doesn't take very long if you can run it all.

OP, if you have 496 already, just farm rares on the isle for Burdens (get the free one in the blazing chest) and use them to plug gaps and get your ilvl up. Your priority is getting into LFR and running them like a madman to scavenge whatever ilvl you can. There are also 535 trinkets on the Isle vendors if you have a lot of coins going spare.

As for the cloak, run the old LFRs as well as the new ones and do the rep grind, it's a lot of work but it's worth it. Also make sure you're hitting up the world bosses, Oondasta and Nalak if your server still kills them and definitely the Celestials. Save your valor points to upgrade decent items since LFR gear will get you into flex runs so that should be your first goal then move from there to normal runs.

I had two toons that I got to 530 in 2 weeks, one of them was actually 530 in one week. Just do timeless isle, get some burdens, then get into a flex raid (preferably with guildies, so you don't get booted for low item level).

So if you look at my character in my sig you will see I have done zero PvE in MoP so far and its all been PvP. Now I've come to the conclusion that PvE this expansion has been way better than PvP so I want to start getting geared and doing some LFR/Flex and eventually pug some normals.

Looked up some shit on how to gear up in 5.4 but its all been very random on what to do and how long it takes so I was wondering if any of you based PvE gods could fill me in.

I'm like 496~ in PvP gear right now, what is a decent ilvl to start Flex and Normals at and what should my steps to getting there be?

ur already 496 ignore this timeless isle shit - run LFR clear it ( So0 ) can do ToT if u can be bothered - see what ilvl you come out with if 515 - 520 pug a few flexi till u have 520+ this is more than enough for So0. start work on legendary cloak. done. 2 -3 weeks depending on how lucky u are

Buy the 1150 valor point and the 875 justice point trinkets for pve.

Soon as your pulling 100k single target join some scrub guild that will gear you - after that worlds your oyster stick with em or find a new

People seem to be be getting off topic here. The question was how to get relatively geared so he can start normals at some point. He doesn't NEED a cloak for LFR/Flex, which is what he will be doing to prepare for normals. Also, at this point I don't see him doing heroic progression anytime soon so that NEED for a cloak for that is also something he could slowly be doing as he does lfr's etc.

A capable player will be able to perform just fine with timeless gear until they can snag some good stuff from lfr. He's in my guild now, I'll take him through some flex runs and lfr to get his mojo going. That should be enough to get to the "geared" level he was looking for this late in the xpac.